Home

1832-1852

1854-1898

1854 - Michael and Ann arrive in Australia

Michael (aged 21) and Ann Green (aged 20), children of Luke Greene, arrive in Adelaide. Michael moved to Beaufort in Victoria, to look for gold, possibly within the next two years.

Of the Australian goldfields, Patrick O'Farrell writes:
"Irishmen flowered in the easy informality of goldfields life. They were at one with its lack of pretension, with its ignoring and dissolving of the old social order and class barriers, with its disintegration of the previously ordained hierarchies... they also deliberately created fun. They sang. They were good to be with."

1855 - many Greenes

'Union of Ennistimon, Valuation of the several tenements' (from General Valuation of Rateable Propery in Ireland)
Ballycotteen North (23 tenants listed)
- Thomas Nagle (House office & land) (£4-5-0) & (land) (£3)
- Several Canoles
- Denis Hynes (House office & land) (£4-5-0)
- Luke Greene (House office & land) (£7-16-0)
- Patrick Greene (House & land) (£7-4-0)
(this is probably Patrick (born 1831) listed below under the 1901 census)
(the last three above shared a 292 acre block ­ very large!)
Corofin Heritage Centre notes that Luke's house would have been 'a fairly substantial structure for its time'. This could be either William or Luke Greene's homestead - according to Albert Greene; "Where Thomas now lives was formerly the homestead of Luke Greene." (Is this in Rannagh?)
(Denis Hynes, above, is likely to the son of Pat Hynes, listed in 1926. The sharing of the block further emphasises a close bond between the Hynes and the Greenes which continues to today.)
- Thos Greene (Will) (House & land) (£4-10-0)
(This Thomas, son of William, is likely to have been a brother of Luke, William and Patrick, and the ancestor of Mary and Thomas, living in Ballycotton today).
- Robert Greene (House & land) (£4-10-0)
(46 acres) (unsure of Robert's place in the tree)
- Austin Greene (House & land) (£2-18-0)
(likely to be Austin who died 1886 ­ see tombstone below ­ and brother of William (1840) in Ballycotton, according to descendant Patrick)
- Thos. Greene (Mick) (House & land) (£2-18-0)
(23 acres)

Ballycotteen South
Nagles (Mary, Thomas, Patrick and Richard) and several Vaughans.
Ardanahea
- Thos Greene (Will) (land) (£0-12-0)
- Robert Greene (land) (£0-18-0)
(6 acres)

Liscannor
- Austin Greene
- George Greene
(this is likely to be the George who went to Australia ­ see note below)
- Thomas Nagle

The 'Immediate Lessor' for Ballycotteen North and South, Ardanahea and Liscannor, was Sir Edward Fitzgerald, Bt.
Albert says of General Fitzgerald, the landlord at Ballycotton. 'According to the minutes of the Enistymon Union, this man had no mercy during the famine (of 1845-50) ­ noted for evicting, adding misery to misery'. (can we get acess to his rent roll to find out his tenants?). The Fitzgeralds were Protestants, descendants of the Norman invaders. A contrary view ofthem is put by Peter Mulqiney; the Fitzgeralds 'were very benevolent landlords (compared to the norm) '.

No William Greene appears in 1855. Did William (1810) die in the famine (he would have been about 45)?
But if, as Albert believes, Luke had a son William around 1840, who stayed in Ballycotton, and a son William who married a Kelly girl (Patrick, a living descendant, has his wedding photo), shouldn't he be listed? This William is likely to be the William who witnessed Luke's death in 1885.

Albert wrote "Thomas Greene, aged 90 of Rannagh, relates that George Greene, his wife and four sons emigrated from Rannagh in about 1860 by assisted passage to Australia." This George, however, appears not to be related.